Dispatches
Amazon Conservation Association – Peru (CICRA), Part II
April 15, 2009
If you want to see animals in their habitat, as we have learned, you have to get up early. So today the team went for a walk-along with one of the short-eared dogs that they are studying. The team had to hide behind trees to get ‘natural’ shots of the dog. It could tell something was there but it just couldn’t find them. When the dog came out and started growling, this brought a bunch of monkeys out to the trees and they were wound up and making a lot of noise so the team got really good photos of active monkeys too. Then back for a quick bite to eat and it was off to see the work of a lead entomologist. She showed us a few samples of her long horned beetles and talked about how the tourists at the site are helping her monitor beetles and collect beetles when they are out bird watching.
Our next interview was with Adrian Tejedor, the current Director of Los Amigos Biological Station (CICRA). He had a lot to say about how mining activities are affecting the research at the station and why Los Amigos is so special in terms of biodiversity. This reserve is 160,000 hectares (and combines three parks in the area – which are not parceled out) and so remote that in a few days stay you can see several monkey species, hundreds of birds, large mammals (including jaguars) and hundreds of bugs. In addition, on a really clear day, this is the only place that you can see glaciers in the Andes from the Amazon Rainforest. The research going on at this site is very crucial as they attempt to find out about the habits of species that are rarely seen and little is known about. Thus far, over 4,631 species have been identified at the site, including humans, says Adrian.
To find out more about these unknown species we talked with a local villager who left logging and mining to come back and work in the forest. Like many villagers we talked to, Emeterio Nuncca Sencia, is a rarity in these parts as he decided one day that he didn’t want to senselessly and indiscriminately kill animals left and right as they rip up the forests and break the earth for gold. He got a job with Los Amigos and now is responsible for monitoring the short-eared dog to learn more about its eating habits, and which habitats it prefers or is not attracted to.
At this point, our time had drawn to a close at CICRA and it was time to walk back down the 238 steps and hop back aboard those skinny boats to Puerto Maldonado. During the boat ride, Adrian pointed out lots of interesting features in the landscape. 
We saw roughly 10 mining outfits while we traveled down the river. Adrian said that right now the river is still high and it’s not as easy to mine. In a few months when the river has dropped, there will be 60-70 additional mining rigs along the banks of the river in the section that we were traveling, as well as an additional 40 rigs north of the reserve. Mining for gold is quite a lucrative business in these parts – 6 months of work can net roughly $60,000, not a small chunk of change by any standard. When the price of gold was quite high a few years ago, everyone was running to the river to setup a mining operation. Adrian also pointed out the Brazil nut trees that we will be seeing tomorrow and noted that they are much taller than the surrounding trees. Harvesters of the Brazil nuts have to wait until after the rainy season to gather nuts when all of the nuts have fallen. The nuts are in a shell the size of a coconut and falling from those heights can kill you, so the harvesters have to wait until the danger has passed.
After the boat ride, we had one more drive down one straight, long, dirt road back to Puerto Maldonado where we would be staying the night. There was lots of construction going on so we were constantly covered in dust clouds during the ride. Wednesday nights in Puerto Maldonado are apparently going-out nights as it seemed the whole city was alive. The streets were full of hundreds of motorcycles zipping every direction. On our way to dinner, we got to ride in one of the motorcycle cabs, which is basically a motorcycle with a bench on two wheels attached to the back and a pod covering the whole contraption. The scooter cab doesn’t go much faster than a go-kart and a few times we thought we would have to get out and push it through the intersection before a motorcycled rammed us. We met up with Miguel Moran from Amazon Conservation Association and talked about the Brazil nut project over a pizza pie and a few beers. Then it was back in the go-kart cab and off to sleep in the sweltering heat.
